Tuesday, March 31, 2015

After
students detected the smell of petrol, several petrol bombs were discovered on Monday night in the premises of
the Royal Music Conservatory of Brussels which stands next to the Great Synagogue. The Synagogue is heavily guarded.Firefighters were called in and evacuated the premises. No one was injured or intoxicated. An investigation was opened.Joël Rubinfeld, head of the Belgian League against Antisemitism (LBCA), described the finding as disturbing. He added that if the incendiary devices were planted there it follows that there was criminal intent.Mid-January, a fire broke out in an empty wing Conservatory and both buildings, the Conservatory and the Synagogue, were evacuated.

Last September, the first floor of a synagogue Anderlecht was engulfed in flames. A fire had already broken out in 2010.

On May
24, 2014, Mehdi Mehdi Nemmouche, a French jihadist shot four people dead,
including a couple of Israelis, at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.

Jeffrey Goldberg writes in the Atlantic ("Is it time for the Jews to leave Europe?") about the iconic House of Anne Frank in Amsterdam and reveals that it "has never had a Jewish director" and that "it is widely understood in Amsterdam’s
Jewish community that Jews should not bother applying for the job". For Goldberg, and he is right, it is merely a simulacrum of a Jewish institution. Excerpt:

Ajouter une légende

Many institutions are devoted to memorializing the Shoah, but very few are as iconic as the Anne Frank House, in Amsterdam.

Each year, more than 1 million visitors—many of them Dutch students—make their way up narrow flights of stairs to the perfectly preserved “secret annex” where Anne Frank and her family hid until they were betrayed. The Anne Frank House, which is now encased inside a multimedia museum, is a significant operation, employing 112 people.

I went one morning to talk with its head of education, Norbert Hinterleitner, about how the Jewish crisis in Europe is shaping the house’s pedagogical mission. There has always been tension in the public portrayal of Anne Frank. The specifically Jewish qualities of her life have often been marginalized in literature, onstage, and in film, replaced with a more universal and, to some, accessible message.

I began the interview with a faux pas. A very large number of curators, guides, and directors in European Jewish museums, in my experience, are not Jewish.This is due in part to the general lack of Jews, and to the very large number of museums—Europe is a vast archipelago of Jewish museums. And yet somehow I made the assumption that Hinterleitner was Jewish.
“I’m Austrian, actually.” He didn’t know how many employees at the museum were Jewish, but, he said, “there are some people who have Jewish lineage.” He then added, in what I took to be an effort to explain my initial confusion, “Some people here think I’m Jewish, because I’m dark and I have a big nose.”

The Anne Frank House has never had a Jewish director (though Hinterleitner pointed out that at least two members of the board must have a “Jewish background”), and I would learn later that it is widely understood in Amsterdam’s Jewish community that Jews should not bother applying for the job.

Hinterleitner said that the museum addresses anti-Semitism in the context of larger societal ills, but also that it recently issued a strong press statement condemning anti-Semitic acts in the Netherlands and elsewhere. He said the museum has made an intensive study of anti-Semitism in the Netherlands, and has learned that most verbal expressions of anti-Semitism in secondary schools come from boys and are related to soccer.

The Anne Frank House is merely a simulacrum of a Jewish institution in part because, as its head of communications told me, Anne’s father said that her diary “wasn’t about being Jewish,” but also, Hinterleitner suggested, because a museum devoted too obsessively to the details of a particular genocide might not draw visitors in sufficient numbers. “We want people to be interested in this issue, people from all walks of life. So we talk about the universal components of Anne Frank’s story as well. Our work is about tolerance and understanding.”

When I left, two policemen were patrolling the narrow street outside the museum. A temporary surveillance post had been erected just across from the entrance. I asked one of the officers whether this level of security was normal. He said the government had increased security around the museum last spring, shortly after a massacre at another Jewish site: On May 24, four people were murdered at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in Brussels, allegedly by a French Muslim of jihadist bent named Mehdi Nemmouche. Two Israeli tourists, a French volunteer, and a Belgian employee of Muslim and Jewish descent were killed. Nemmouche had recently returned to Europe after a term with ISIS in Syria, where, according to a former French hostage of ISIS, his specialty was torturing prisoners.

“If you have an anti-Semitic attack on Anne Frank’s house, it won’t be the first,” I said to one of the police officers. We have never had an attack, he said.
Not on his watch. But it is fair to count the August 4, 1944, Gestapo raid on the house, which resulted in the arrest of the Frank family, as an anti-Semitic act. Anne died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, roughly one month before it was liberated by British forces.
Anne Frank has become an obsession of modern anti-Semites.More.

Mantes-la-Ville – Antisemitic graffiti was discovered Friday morning on the walls of several municipal buildings in Jean-Jaurès Avenue, at the city of Mantes-la-Ville (Yvelines). The graffiti were mainly sprayed on the local police building, local market, and Jean-Jaurès elementary school, all located within the city hall quarter. Graffiti was also found on several private houses.

The malicious graffiti was directed against the Jewish community. Some of it praised the Kouachi brothers, who carried out the massacre in the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7th this year (11 killed, including 8 journalists).

Israel’s election winner, Benjamin Netanyahu, emphasized during the election Iran’s nuclear program and the Islamist threat. As elections were approaching, he hardened his rhetoric towards the Palestinians. He promised that if he wins the election, that the Palestinians will not be given their own state. The Palestinians have lived under oppression and blockade for decades, and we have for the last few years witnessed brutal actions in which children, women and the elderly having been systematically murdered. This all happened less than a year ago.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a columnist for The Independent, has much a long history when it comes to poisonous diatribes
against Israel and Jews who support the state. She regularly describes
Israel as a “racist” and “apartheid” state yet claims that some of her
best friends are Jewish. Her latest screed
continues in this vein with some particularly disturbing comments even
by her low standards. Chief among these is this statement:

Hamas is a wicked and dangerous force in the Middle East. But Israel is now more wicked and dangerous.

A look at the evil and anti-Semitic Hamas Charter, not to mention
Hamas’s deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians as recently as last
summer, is enough to demonstrate that the real wickedness on display
here is Alibhai-Brown’s despicable claim that Israel is more virulent
than a vicious terror organization.
But that is only one of many issues with Alibhai-Brown’s piece. She
begins by praising Time magazine columnist Joe Klein for criticizing
Israel even though he is, according to her, a “loyal Zionist all his
life.” She writes:

It took courage to write with such honesty. It took a
perceptive and reflective Jew to articulate what millions felt around
the world. He will, by now, have felt the slings and arrows of outraged
zealots.

Furthermore:

It isn’t easy to be a principled and mindful Diasporic
Jew. Accused of treachery by insiders and mistrusted by outsiders, they
can’t win.

Some still do censure the racist Israeli state, but carefully. Many don’t speak out because criticism of Israel provokes defensive Zionist fury and bolsters diehard anti-Semites.

On the contrary, it does not take a great deal of courage to
criticize Israeli policies. Plenty of Diaspora Jews do that and it is
their right to do so. If they do so “carefully” it is because they are
not indulging in the demonization and delegitimization that
characterizes so much of the hateful invective aimed at Israel these
days. Aside from the Diaspora, even more Israelis are critical of their
own government as befits a healthy democracy which has just held an
intensely fought election. Of course, Alibhai-Brown can’t help but add
the “racist” adjective into the mix as well treating Zionism as a dirty
ideology.
Alibhai-Brown continues:

Many of us Muslims are caught in the same bind:
if we condemn Islamicist ideologues, defensive Muslims get furious and
anti-Muslim hatred is boosted.

Controversial TV personality Katie Hopkins has been accused of
antisemitism, after suggesting Ed Miliband should gas his wife in an
oven. The jibe against the Labour leader – whose parents fled the Holocaust
– and his wife, Justine, came after polling on the popularity of
politicians’ wives.

Ms Hopkins, who has appeared on reality TV shows including Celebrity
Big Brother and the Apprentice, tweeted: “Pollsters say Justine is the
least popular of party wives. “He (Mr Miliband) might stick her head in the oven and turn on the gas.”

Social media users called for her arrest after the slur against the Milibands. Mr Miliband has repeatedly spoken of how his parents, Ralph Miliband and Marion Kozak, fled the Shoah in the 1940s. More.

Monday, March 30, 2015

Students from an Israeli Arab high school in Umm Al-Fahm attacked the tour guide of an 11th grade Bnei Akiva Yeshiva class visiting the area on their school’s annual field trip, Israel’s NRG reported on Sunday.

Last Wednesday, on the day of the trip, the group of eight yeshiva students began its tour through the Banias Nature Reserve, accompanied by their guide Avraham Snir and another guide. On the narrow path, the yeshiva students crossed paths with three Israeli Arab students from “Chadash” high school.

The Arab students then began to curse them, according to the report. Snir objected to their insults, to which the Arab students responded, “we are a thousand and one, and you are nothing. Wait, wait.”

Though Snir said he initially dismissed their threats, a few minutes later they once again encountered the tormentors around one of the curves in the nature trail. However, this time, they were accompanied by dozens of their friends.

The Bnei Akiva students say that approximately 40 or 50 of the Chadash students emerged, and were asking in Arabic, “Where is he? Where is he?” Snir realized they were looking for him, and when the original three Chadash students recognized him they said, “You think you’re a man? Now we’ll see what you’re worth.”

“Immediately, I realized that I was encircled by fifty agitated guys,” claims Snir, who then began beating and kicking him all over his body and striking his head. Snir says his assailants began cursing at him, saying, “we will kill you, you dog!” and calling him a “dirty Jew.” One of Snir’s students who came to his aid was thrown by one of the Arab students into a wall.

The Agricultural Ministry recently raised the tariffs on kosher meat imported into Norway. Kosher slaughter is illegal in Norway and Jews who wish to eat kosher meat must import it from abroad, which already makes it very expensive. Currently, a pound of kosher minced meat costs $11. With the additional tariffs it would cost almost $20.

Following complaints, the ministry froze the tax-hike pending review.

Ervin Kohn, head of the Jewish community, wants the tariff to be scrapped. He says there is no reason Jews should pay more in order to be Jewish in Norway. In fact, he says the state should subsidize kosher meat, so that it would cost as much as regular meat.

Last year, when there was a shortage of pork ribs just before Christmas, the government cut the tariffs on imported pork. to allow Norwegians to enjoy their traditional Christmas meal.

Damian Thompson, associate editor of The Spectator, did a little investigation to find out.

Thompson did not talk to Jewish rabbis or scientists. He did not conduct a scientific survey of the Jewish community. Instead he ran a Google search, and found a site called Jews News.

Let’s just say that the science isn’t settled, not by a long chalk. What interested me was the source of MuslimVillage’s story: they’d copied it from Jews News, which in turn took it from RedFlagNews.com, a hard-right American Christian website that is today telling us that the ashes of the Apostle John may have been found in a medieval fortress in Bulgaria.

Well, obviously, if one Jew who believes in something, that's enough to prove that all Jews think so.

Dr Whitehead’s ‘findings’ are being tossed around in a pool of counterknowledge, bogus information dressed up to look like fact. What I find fascinating about counterknowledge is that its raw material – conspiracy theories, urban myth, fake history and fake science – spreads from one marginalised community to another, even though those communities may despise each other. Conservative Muslims, Jews and Christians want to believe that homosexuality is environmental, because if it’s genetic that makes it difficult to justify their belief that it’s sinful. As soon as they find a study that reinforces their worldview, they jump on it, without asking too many questions about its methodology.

This is not journalism. It's racism of the worst type, which you can easily find on the lowest-of-the-low extreme racist blogs.

Bart De Wever, the popular mayor of Antwerp and leader of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), criticised the behaviour of the Moroccans of Berber origin who live in Antwerp. Speaking on VRT TV Mr De Wever said that Antwerp's Berber community was a
very clannish and distrusted authority.

Mr Bart De Wever said: "I willnever denythat there is racism and it must be fought.Butthere areotherproblems involved.I havenever seena migrantfrom the Far Eastcomplain aboutdiscrimination at work; and this community has nota strongrepresentationin criminalstatistics.But wehave a lot ofdifficulties in organizingsocial mobility for the city's Moroccan community. The Berber communityof Antwerp represents 80%of the Moroccan communityin the city.They are veryclosed, they have adistrustof authority,Islamis very little organized amongand isvery seusceptible to Salafist radicalization.Everybody needs to make an effort, particularly to look for work. Some usethe argumentof racismto justifypersonal failureand hope that all isforgiven.Thiswill not do!"

Following the interview, a journalist at the Soir went to interview some Antwerp inhabitants of Moroccan descent. Unsurprisingly who did they complain of, who immediately springs to their minds? The Jews, naturally.

Abdel commented: "His statements have reinforced my idea that De
Wever is minded to protect the Jews". His table neighbour added: "De Wever is Jewish in terms of the economy ..."!

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Cool Israel reports that the Montpellier BDS wing, headed by Saadia Ben Fakha and Husein Abuzaid, posted this image of Mein Kampf on Facebook,. It has now been taken down. This goes to show how obsessed Europeans are by Jews, Israel, Zionism and are very keen on conspiracy theories.

Comment in very bad French: "What Hitler did to the Jews was done on purpose and designed to elicit sympathy for them and to give them all the rights, up to this day they tell the world about this Hitler story (Holocaust) everything they [the Jews] have they owe it to Hitler."

This could also be read:-"TheNazis andthe Zionists aretwo sides of thesame coin, Zionismfits in to the millimeter with Nazism; they belong to the sameschool "-"WhatHitlerdidto the Jewswas deliberateandpremeditatedfor a specificpurposebeing a tactic common to Jews, like the 9/11 big lie"-"They sacrificedsome Jewsforwhatthey have got today, Hitler took part in thecolonization of Palestine, itwas part of theplan"-"Therelationship of Hitler withtheRothschildfamily, thissatanicJewishfamily that ownsall the landof Palestine, andone of the mostpowerful familyin the world"-And much more...

The Tory
Election candidate exposed for plotting with far-Right extremists to
stir up racial hatred is a former member of a fanatical Islamic sect
that believes the Nazis were misunderstood and that Jews control the
world.

Afzal
Amin, who resigned after The Mail on Sunday published undercover
recordings of him meeting the English Defence League, joined the
Birmingham wing of the Murabitun, a fundamentalist cult which questioned
the Holocaust and praised Hitler.

In 1992 when Amin was 18, he left the group, founded by Scottish hippy Ian Dallas, after becoming disillusioned. Two
years later, a book crediting him as author Raja Afzal Raza Amin
al-Quraishy, was published in which he criticised the Murabitun and
called for jihadi warriors to establish a Muslim state in Europe. Amin says his words were doctored to include the extremist views, which he yesterday described as ‘disgusting’. More.

Police say there is little that can be done against a man who made a Nazi salute while urinating on a memorial in a former concentration camp.Photos of Zdenek Appl, 24, urinating next to the Star of David at the Theresienstad concentration, were handed to Czech police by a disgusted former friend.

But the force investigated have admitted it may be difficult to take legal action against Appl, as promoting Nazi ideology is not illegal in the Czech Republic like it is in neighbouring Germany or Austria.

The pictures were taken Appl was visiting the former camp, situated in the north of the Czech Republic close to the German border with Jiri Larva, 25.

Jiri said he decided to hand the evidence over to the police after he was appalled by his former friend's action, who was allegedly drunk at the time.

(...)

Czech media has reported that Appl has a Nazi tattoo on his arm with the words 'Arbeit macht frei' - meaning 'work makes you free', the same chilling saying that was put above the entrance to Auschwitz and other concentration camps.

They also state that Appl runs a Facebook page full of arguments promoting Nazi ideology - he but later denied he believed in the far-right views.

After speaking with the media by telephone, Appl added that he is not a Naxi and said his tattoo had been removed since the pictures were taken.

The Stigma? is a documentary by Martí Sans that explores and reflects on the genesis and sticking with the anti-Jewish prejudice in the current Spain and it has the participation of fifteen experts. This project has involved three years of work, including a year and half research.

Martí Sans, who made the film, admits at the outset that he “inherited the prejudices of my family,” and decides to record “the process of deconstructing my anti-Semitism.” That statement would suggest a very different, more personal kind of film, a film that one hopes he will make some day. But what he has done is examine the dark history of Spanish and Catalan attitudes towards the Jews, keeping in the forefront the reality that for nearly a half-millennium Spain had no Jews at all. Indeed, as one of the several intellectuals interviewed for the film notes, until very recently it was illegal for a Jew to set foot on Spanish soil.

The result is an eerie kind of anti-Semitism, one that is, as Sans observes, “based more on ideology than experience.” It is as if Spain underwent a 500-year-long version of the “anti-Semitism without Jews” that distinguishes the Polish experience in the 1950s and ’60s. And the result is an appalling combination of ignorance and superstition dominating the popular imagination, one that Sans documents deftly with a series of street interviews of ordinary residents of Barcelona. Despite what one might expect, “The Stigma?” is a thoughtful and well-crafted film that puts a new spin on supposedly familiar history and ideology.

Time for Swedish Jews to leave? When we ask for guarantees of our safety, we’re met with speeches and calls for patience. This is not living.

They canceled Jewish winter camp.It sounds like a little thing, but
in Sweden, where we have very few venues in which to lead our Jewish
lives, it means a great deal. Winter camp is a yearly highlight, a place
where our children can learn and play with other Jewish children,
without worry. This year, they won’t be able to go, and for a simple
reason—because it’s not safe. [...]

Back in the summer of 2013, I read Michel Gurfinkiel’s sweeping essay in Mosaic on the threatened state of European Jewry and was moved to write him a letter. The editors then kindly published it as a response
to his analysis. In it I described the particular difficulties and
dangers facing a Jew in contemporary Sweden, and announced my intention
to stay and fight for the future of Jewish life in the European
Diaspora. As the situation in my country worsened, I ended up—as I again
reported in Mosaic—filing
for asylum in my own country on grounds of religious discrimination. My
act was aimed at raising public consciousness and eliciting from my
government at least an acknowledgment of reality. But despite the
publicity my filing attracted, no such acknowledgment was forthcoming.
Nor did my action garner any significant support within the official
Jewish community itself; to the contrary, I was not spared ridicule for
my alleged hyperbole and fear-mongering. [...]

As more and more people, including communal leaders, are voicing
their anxiety and alarm, and attracting the notice of the media, the
sheer intractability of the problem is also emerging, sometimes with
startling nakedness. A couple of weeks ago, a major public-radio station
interviewed Isaac Bachman, Israel’s ambassador to Stockholm. ‎During
the interview he was asked: “Do the Jews themselves have any
‎responsibility for the growing anti-Semitism that we see now?”‎
Naturally, the ambassador was stunned. “I reject the question
‎altogether,” he said. “It’s like asking a woman how she has contributed
to the fact ‎that she is being raped. I don’t think there is any
provocation on the part of the Jews; they just exist.” ‎[...]

Rallies, speeches, a solidarity ring
around a synagogue as in Oslo: these are no substitute for the actual
guarantee and protection of civil rights, for actual inclusivity, for
actual religious freedom; they are at best a way of treating symptoms
while ignoring the disease. We are being urged to join others in
striving for peace and understanding, as if all along we have been
striving for something else and need to assume our share of
responsibility for the campaign being waged against us. The marches, the
one-off visits of dignitaries to synagogues, the solemn frowns of
sympathy: all instruct us to be patient and do nothing until we reach
the point where there will be nothing left to do.

They canceled the Jewish winter camp, and men with automatic weapons
are guarding our schools. Our children will not forget this; fear and
hate—their fear, others’ hate—are now somehow coterminous in their minds
with the very nature of Jewish life. We European Jews have been here
before.

In 2014, immigration to Israel from Western Europe went up by 88
percent over the previous year, corroborating the trend already emerging
in the 2013 survey. Jews are leaving Europe in record numbers, and more
are thinking about it. I am now one of them. In my first contribution
to Mosaic I wrote that I was absolutely determined to stay and
fight for a strong Jewish life in the Diaspora. “We want to live,” I
said. Today I don’t know what’s next for me, or for Europe. But I know
that for my children and for me, this is not living.

The Turkish soccer club Türkischer SC Offenbach 1987 e.V. posted an advertisement in Turkish including the slogan "Don't let your money go to the Jewish Allianz insurance company" as the Hessischer Rundfunk reports. The club now dissociates itself from that ad arguing there was nothing antisemitic in it, but they don't want to talk bad about other companies.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

A 71-year-old doctor from Upper Austria has been sentenced to one year’s house arrest for Holocaust denial.

On Thursday a jury at Linz Court unanimously agreed that a letter the
doctor had sent to the local council and the administration of the
Mauthausen concentration camp memorial site proved that he believed that
the gas chambers and the systematic genocidal killing had been made up.

The man, from the Mühlviertel region, wrote that he became convinced
after visiting the Mauthausen site that the gas chambers had never
existed and that therefore the Holocaust “must be a lie made up by
Zionist bankers, who are still up to their mischief in Israel and the
‘Arab Spring’”.

He went on to claim that Hitler and Germany were not to blame for WWII
and that Austria would be forever burdened with the “Holocaust cudgel”.

His lawyer argued that the 71-year-old was not a Nazi but merely a
"troublemaker" who had a “particular character” and was “constantly
trying to get to the bottom of things”. The defendant pleaded not guilty and said that he had only been trying
to uncover the truth. He said that whilst he was at Mauthausen he
noticed that there was no gas pipe leading to the gas chamber, and he
could find no explanation of why this was so.

The head of the Mauthausen Memorial appeared as a witness and described
in detail to the 71-year-old how SS men had removed the gas pipes
shortly before the camp was liberated in 1945. He said that historic
records proved this was the case, and that it was clearly visible that
the area where the pipes had been had been plastered over. The defendant told the court that “if that’s the case then I accept it but no one told me at the time”. More.

Avraham Weill, a rabbi from Toulouse, says he was not allowed to vote in this week's local elections because he was wearing a kippah. The polling station was located at a a school and Weill was requested to remove his kippah in the name of laïcité (French secularism).

Update from reader:

The rabbi was stopped from voting by two far left militants, a woman and her husband. Other people in the polling station protested and the rabbi was finally able to vote.

Protesting against "racism and fascim" in France. The placard reads "Fuck france and her colonial past PRESENT". Note lower case for France.

Caroline Artus @ Boulevard Voltaire wrote about a demonstration which took place in several French cities on 21 March by no less than 125 "progressive" NGOs. They protested against "racism and fascism".

They called for an end of all manifestations of Republican (i.e. State) racism, including, islamophobia, negrophobia, romaphobia (against the Roma) and also against philosemitism, which they consider to be a form of racism/fascim. In other words the government is too complacent towards Jews.

The gate of the Jewish cemetery of the city of Osterburg got twisted and a swastika was drawn. Police started investigations and doesn't draw a connection between the two desecrations. But "a political or even antisemitic motive can't be excepted".

An Israeli flag placed outside of the international Expo 2015 in Milan was vandalized by an unknown person. The flag was sprayed with red paint to simulate blood. A suspect has not yet been caught.

The flag is in Piazza Cordusio in the city, along with the flags of many other countries as part of the renowned international fair, which is being held in Milan this year. On of the main points of interest in the exhibition are the international pavilions that are built by the different countries.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Alexander Dukovski, a Jewish doctor, was beaten up by 3 masked men shouting antisemitic slogans at him: "Jew, get out of town and out of the country". The attackers focused on his hands. Dukovski is a pediatric neurosurgeon and it's unclear if he'll ever be able to work again in his field.

The local media did not report the antisemitic aspects of the attack, and the police are investigating it as hooliganism.

A few days ago a senior official in the Jewish community was attacked in Sarajevo. Though the motive for the attack is unclear, various organizations condemned it with the assumption that it's antisemitic.

After condemning the attack the Palestinian community adds that this terrorist act serves the policies of Netanyahu and the Zionist propaganda, which aims to strike fear into the hearts of European Jews so they would leave Europe and go to Occupied Palestine.

Please note that the Palestinian community does not recognize the two state solution. They believe that Israel should be wiped out and that Jews have no right to their ancestral homeland.

Most liberal Jews believe that the plight of Palestinian Arabs inside and outside Israel presents the Jewish State with an important test of its commitment to social justice—a test that Israel is failing. Many wish to be publicly critical of Netanyahu’s Israel. But all too often they hold back, because in the vehemence of left-wing Israel hatred they sense something besides concern about Israelis or Palestinians. When liberal British Jews see anti-Israel marchers holding signs saying “Jews back to the gas” and “Hitler was right” and they don’t hear loud and universal condemnation of such bile from the left, they begin to fear that there is another agenda there that is not about social justice. They sense anti-Semitism.

Yet for many British Jews, the vehemence of leftist anti-Zionism—minus the Nazi slogans—is a problem, too. When liberal British Jews hear of organizations like the PSC applauding a call to destroy Balfour’s damned legacy, that doesn’t feel like a constructive critique of Israel and its policies—the kind that could be justly leveled at both Britain and America in recent history; it feels like blind rage and deep loathing.

Because here’s the thing that is rarely said: If your anti-Zionism is such that you hate Israel’s very existence, then for most British Jews the effect of this is similar to anti-Semitism, because to a greater or lesser extent, most British Jews are Zionists, meaning that they believe that the project of collective Jewish existence is a legitimate one, or as legitimate as the existence and aspirations of any other nation, including the Palestinians. And because Israel is the Jewish state, British Jews take Israel-hatred personally. Asking them to disavow their affiliation to Israel in order to maintain their liberalism therefore presents an agonizing choice.

(...)

“For the first time in five decades,” wrote veteran British actress Maureen Lipman in November, “I shall not be voting Labour.” Her primary reason was simple: Israel. She excoriated Miliband for his demand that the British government recognize a Palestinian state without a peace deal. She also disapproved of his party’s double standards attacking Israeli aggression when it was responsible for launching a war in Iraq. “Come election day,” she wrote, “I shall give my vote to another party. Almost any other party. Until my party is once more led by mensches.”

Lipman is not alone. Last August Kate Bearman, the former head of the Labour Friends of Israel, resigned her membership to the Labour Party, citing the fact that its “leadership issues simplistic statements that are at odds with the realities Israel faces.” She felt that she was “forced to choose between my party and my support for Israel. And I’ve chosen.”

Many younger Jewish liberals also no longer feel they have a political home. Alex Tenenbaum, 27, is a comedy writer living in north London. His politics have always been liberal, but he has moved further to the left after spending much of the past two years working in disadvantaged London state schools confronting vast inequality. Despite this, he sees no place for himself in today’s Labour Party.

“I couldn’t imagine a time when I wouldn’t vote Labour and yet at the point in my life that I’m at my most fair-minded on many social issues, I don’t feel I’ve got a party to vote for,” he said.

“Some people on the left, educated people, are so quick to use the word Holocaust against Israel, almost with a grin because they think they legitimately can. Don’t get me wrong, Israel does a lot I don’t agree with, but I don’t find myself criticizing them to anyone who isn’t Jewish because I don’t want to be associated with people who freely use words like holocaust and ethnic cleansing.”

Ben Bowers, a 19-year-old student, describes himself as politically liberal. “In the past I may have voted for Labour, but a few years ago I started to move away from them,” he said. “I would never say that I switched allegiance based on Israel, but it undoubtedly makes me feel uncomfortable when I see ultra-liberals joining in alliance with homophobic and sexist Islamists to denounce a democratic country under a veil of anti-Semitism.”

Over the last few months, a number of leading European politicians have declared how important it is that the Jews keep residing in their various countries.
Government leaders also claim that they will do the utmost to protect
their Jewish communities against a rising tide of anti-Semitic attacks.

The reason for these declarations derives from a number of factors. The
primary one is the rise of lethal attacks on Jews by Muslim
Europeans.[...]

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has been the most outspoken of the European leaders who believe that Jews should remain in Europe. Jewish filmmaker Claude Lanzmann wrote an article titled, “France without Jews would not be France,” which Valls referred to the next day in a major speech at the French National Assembly. Valls said, “Claude
Lanzmann wrote a wonderful article in Le Monde, yes, say it to the
face of the world, a France without Jews is not France.” [...]

An alert observer might remark that there was a crucial admission
lacking in all of these statements: “France is no longer France, since
it let in, non-selectively, millions of Muslims from countries where
anti-Semitism is rife.” These include immigrants from Algeria where
87% of those polled by the ADL expressed anti-Semitic views, Tunisia
where 86% of respondents held anti-Semitic views, and Morocco, where
80% polled were anti-Semitic. One reaction to this mass Muslim
immigration is that the extreme-right National Front is France’s
leading party, according to many current polls.
In the first round of the French departmental elections in March it
came however after the conservative UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

There is a second point such an observer could raise. Hypothetically,
even if the entire Jewish community were to leave France, how much of
an impact would that actually make on French society? The positions
of the departing lawyers, doctors, journalists, politicians,
philosophers, shopkeepers, artists, and so on would be filled up quite
rapidly. We have seen extreme precedents for such a phenomena in Europe
during the German occupation when many Jews were initially expelled
from their jobs. However, such a massive departure of Jews would
have a great symbolic impact on France’s image. In January, Valls said
to journalists that France is a state where there is “territorial,
social, and ethnic apartheid.” The departure of many Jews would add an
additional dimension to France’s character as a failing democratic
republic.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also came out
on the subject and said, “We are glad and thankful that there is
Jewish life in Germany again, and we would like to continue living well
together with the Jews who are in Germany today.” The psychological
importance of the Jewish presence in Germany – comprised mainly of
immigrants from Russia - is far greater in that country than in France,
even though they make up a much smaller percentage of the general
population. In view of
Germany’s Nazi past, the presence of Jews serves as a major
image-enhancer that today’s Germany is not only different in nature, but
that it is a healthy democracy. [...]

The Europe of today is far from being the Germany of the 1938
Kristallnacht. At that time, the government was behind the anti-Semitic
violence. Current European governments want to prevent anti-Semitic
violence, however may only be moderately capable of doing so. If these
aggressions – and in particular, the killings – were to increase, the
departure of Jews from Europe would still be far from reaching a full
exodus, even if the number of those leaving would likely be much larger
than current figures. In the meantime, the remarks of the European leaders are welcome, despite their being, for the most part, exercises in rhetoric.

Isareli settlers are colonising Palestinian territory under the guise of moving in to areas to protect historic archaeological sites, the British government has said.

Ministers say they are concerned that the Israeli government agency in charge of preserving historic artefacts is undermining efforts for peace in the region by working with a group of “radical” settlers.

The ‘Elad’ settler group is known for aggressively colonising Palestinian areas, including evicting Palestinian residents from homes in urban areas.

(...)

Civil servants in the Foreign Office have long believed that Mr Netanyahu is an “armour-placed bullshitter”, according to revelations published in a new book by the last Labour government’s communications director Alastair Campbell.

The new book in question is from 2011.

The article is full of accusations against Israel, but does not bring even one response from the Israeli side.

The site in question is Silwan, known in Hebrew as Ir David (City of David), the site of First Temple Jerusalem. The Elad settlers 'evict' Arabs by buying their houses.

But let's not get confused by facts.

Meanwhile, Palestinians are destroying the Temple Mount, Judaism's most holy site, and robbing archaeological sites across the country, but that is not something that British ministers really care about.

I ran across two interviews with European Jews from two different sources, each repeating the same sentiment: The situation isn't so bad, and they wear their Judaism with pride. But they say that if they can't walk around as Jews, they will leave.

Swedish Jew Micael Bindefeld writes in Aftonbladet of his pride in his Judaism. He doesn't hide his Star of David pendant.

His article ends with these words: "I'm not afraid in Sweden now, but the day I will be, I won't hesitate. I'll take my Star of David, pack my bags and leave."

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

The Times reports:
Greece sparks German fury with Holocaust comparison

Greece risked inflaming tensions with Berlin by raising the Holocaust to back demands to be treated as leniently as post-war Germany ahead of a crunch meeting between Angela Merkel and Alexis Tsipras today.

Nikos Kotzias, the foreign minister, proposed a joint German and Greek commission to work out a solution to the claim by Athens for compensation for the suffering caused by the Nazis during the Second World War. More.

This comes as no surprise. Abravanel blog observed in January:

So what can Greek Jews expect?

[...] While wholeheartedly sympathetic to
dead Jews, [Tsipra’s/Syriza] is not particularly interested in the ones alive. [...] A
tangible example is how Syriza’s elder statesman Manolis Glezos handles
WW2 reparations: while demanding the restitution of a forced Greek loan
to Nazi Germany and additional reparations, Glezos has specifically
excluded any application of his justice in his own home. This being of
course because it would involve the question of Thessaloniki where Greek
Christians collaborated and plundered on a scale resembling the sack of
Rome. More.

Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of Paris is among the most visited sites on the planet and a splendid example of Gothic architecture.
Each year, millions flock to admire and photograph its flying buttresses and statuary, yet few take any real notice of two prominent female statues on either side of the main entrance.

The one on the left is dressed in fine clothing and bathed in light, while the one on the right is disheveled, with a large snake draped over her eyes like a blindfold.
A snake draped around Sinagoga blindfolds her. The statues, known as Ecclesia and Sinagoga, respectively, and generally found in juxtaposition, are a common motif in medieval art and represent the Christian theological concept known as supercessionism, whereby the Church is triumphant and the Synagogue defeated. Sinagoga is depicted here with head bowed, broken staff, the tablets of the law slipping from her hand and a fallen crown at her feet. Ecclesia stands upright with crowned head and carries a chalice and a staff adorned with the cross.

While the issue of what constitutes free speech and what crosses into incitement to violence was brought to the fore by the deadly January attack on the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, images mocking Jews and Judaism and encouraging anti-Semitic violence have been displayed throughout Europe since the early Middle Ages.

In a time when literacy was uncommon, these images were the political cartoons and posters of the age, and the ridicule and carnage they promoted was both routine and government sanctioned. What’s more, most remain visible if you know where to look. More.

This plaque at the Palazzo Salvadori in Trent, Italy, illustrates the
supposed martyrdom of Simon of Trent at the hands of Jews. (Wikimedia
Commons)

16th-century depiction of the alleged host profanation by Jews in 1370, in the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels. (Wikipedia Commons)

On March 21st, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, various anti-racism orgs in the Netherlands united for a joint protest. Against racism, Islmophobia, Afro-phobia, and antisemitism.

Appa was quite upset to be accused of antisemitism. He's an anti-Zionist, not an antisemite at all. Those Jews Zionists are trying to shut him up by accusing him of being an antisemite. To fight this he set up a page called "I am Appa".

Abulkasim Al-Jaberi is from an organization called "Back to Palestine". What does this have to do with racism and discrimination in the Netherlands? Absolutely nothing. But the organizers really wanted to make Jews feel welcome.

Jewish children in particular "are the victims of all sorts of
attacks," said Catherine Nicault, professor emeritus in contemporary
history at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne in northeast
France.

"Unfortunately, the children suffer from hate and
anti-Semitism in public schools, and that's why, more and more, they
take refuge in Jewish schools," said Shlomo Katz, who teaches at a
yeshiva in Paris. "The problem is that these Jewish schools are the
target of anti-Semitic attacks and must be constantly under
surveillance." More.

Meps from Greece’s neo-nazi Golden Dawn and Udo Voigt from the German neo-Nazi NPD were among the participants at the pro-Kremlin International Conservative Forum in Saint Petersburg.

According to the forum’s website, some 400 people from 15 different countries gathered on Sunday (22 March) to back a resolution on scrapping EU sanctions against Russia and protecting “Christian traditions”.

Other participants included nationalist parties from Belgium (Euro-Rus), Bulgaria (Ataka), Denmark (The Danes), Italy (New Force), Spain (National Democracy), Sweden (Party of the Swedes) and the UK (British National Party).

(...)

The forum describes itself as a “scientific conference” and was organised by the “Russian National Cultural Center - People's House.”

According to Bulgarian media outlet Novinite, the event organiser includes Russia’s Rodina party.

Formed in 2003, the party lists Russia’s Deputy PM Sergey Rogozin as a member.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Barack Obama's antisemitism envoy has warned of the likelihood of
"tragic incidents" unless Europe does more to protect Jewish
communities.

Ira Forman made the comments this week while visiting Sweden to assess the country's efforts to prevent attacks on Jews. In Malmö, the southern Swedish city that has acquired an
international reputation for antisemitism, Mr Forman said: "I think
people have good intentions, but I'm also concerned about what will
happen two or three months from now. Without a commitment to increase security for Jewish communities around Europe, we're more likely to see tragic incidents."

Petra Kahn Nord, president of Sweden's Jewish Youth Association,
said: "It's fantastic that the US pays so much attention to this. I get
the feeling that our own politicians are not taking antisemitism as
seriously."

Mr Forman said Malmö's leaders were not making excuses for Jew-hatred
and had not attempted to blame the Jewish community. "That's a huge
difference to the past," he added.

Popular comedian Elie Semoun, who worked together with Dieudonné for about seven years until their
breakup in 1997. has complained of being the target of antisemitism.

Semoun told Le Parisien that there is an anxiety-inducing atmosphere due to antisemitism and terrorism. He gets upset by abuse on Twitter and Facebook (kike, bloody Jew and much more).

Semoun added that any Jew can be at the receiving end of wanton violence and that for the first time in his life he is being given the finger and insulted in the streets of Paris.

His turn around is symtomatic of how much the situation has changed. In 2011 Semoun downplayed the level of antismitism He told RMC:

"Among the Jewsthereare those whoare completelyparanoidand wantto get out ofFrancebecause there aremany Arabs! Andall of a suddenwhenparanoiasets in,the Jews want togo to Israelor the UnitedStatesto practice theirreligion! "

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, antisemitism was impossible to ignore and became a central concern of the global left, but Julian Burnside encapsulated the contemporary shift in thinking when he wrote in the Guardian that “Islamophobia is the new antisemitism”, implying, as many often do, that the old antisemitism has been superseded.

It hasn’t. Last Wednesday, a lecture at the University of Sydney by retired British Colonel Richard Kemp became the scene of a heated protest. Kemp was accused of supporting genocide, and, during the fracas, noted Australian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions advocate Professor Jake Lynch was filmed waving money in the faces of an elderly Jewish women and the Jewish student trying to prevent the two from coming to blows.

Lynch explained his actions as a response to having been kicked, saying it was a warning that he would sue, and described his restraint as “almost heroic”, though his account has been disputed by witnesses, with Kemp claiming that the woman was attempting to push Lynch away, who initiated the contact.

Irrespective of who struck first, the image of a leftwing academic brandishing money in the faces of Jewish people clearly evokes the crude antisemitic falsehood that Jews are obsessed with money and perhaps neatly encapsulates the shift of the left away from Jews.

Whatever Lynch’s excuses or reasoning, and the elderly woman’s behaviour, it was clearly an offensive and provocative gesture, reasonably likely to offend the Jewish community. In the past, a leftwing professor would surely have anticipated this, but the reality is that antisemitism today is not as pressing an issue to progressives as it once was.

Instead we have a new set of attitudes towards antisemitism: that it is of lesser importance in the west than other forms of racism, like Islamophobia; that it is no longer a serious threat to diaspora Jews; and that the gravity of its existence is diminished because of the existence and behaviour of Israel.

The attacks in Paris and Copenhagen are ample proof that antisemitism still poses a threat to Jews in the west, especially in light of new recordings from Paris confirming definitively that the gunman targeted Jews. In France, Jews make up 1% of the population yet suffer half of all racist attacks. In Australia, 2014 saw a massive increase in reported antisemitism, including physical attacks in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

But Jews should not be required to parade our suffering, historical or contemporary, in a competition for attention with other forms of racism. Nor should we be expected to tolerate the constant appearance of antisemitic language and imagery at prominent anti-Israel rallies, which does seem to show that the use of antisemitic symbols and language in the west is seen as less threatening, or perhaps “understandable”, when connected with Israel.

That attitude was shown by leftwing Jewish actress Miriam Margolyes’ astonishing performance on a recent episode of the ABC’s Q&A programme. Answering a straightforward question on whether antisemitism garners as much sympathy as Islamophobia, Margolyes’ response was to bring up Israel’s “evil” actions in Gaza as a likely cause of antisemitism. Her solution was for Australians to see that “not all Jews behave in the way Israelis are doing” – suggesting all the Jew has to do is denounce Israel loudly enough, or perhaps wear a sign, that indicates that we aren’t all “evil” like Israelis are, to avoid being victimised.

Ironically, it sounds remarkably like a demand so often made of Muslims. As Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said a week earlier, “I wish more Muslim leaders would say [they are a religion of peace] more often and mean it.” Abbott’s comments were widely denounced by the left and rightfully so, but Margolyes’ comments were not objected to, they were applauded by many in the audience and online.

It is surely obvious that mitigating bigotry or racism with victim-blaming is wrong regardless of the victim’s ethnic or religious background. Yet it persists in some left-wing circles that Jews are the exception to this rule – our communal connection to Israel makes us somehow more legitimate targets, unless we denounce the Jewish state.

The problem with this notion is twofold – firstly, because Jews do not wear signs declaring our position on Israel. A proud Zionist Jew can just as easily be targeted at a kosher supermarket as an anti-Zionist one. More than that though, why should we have a duty to detach ourselves from a vital aspect of our cultural identity to avoid victimisation?

The reality is that we are human beings with complex identities, defined by a wide range of societal, communal and ethnic influences. Must we carry the burden of answering for all of Israel’s actions because we were born Jewish? And are we so unlike other ethnic cultures that care for the safety and security of our relatives abroad, that we can be painted as immoral for not abstracting ourselves from their threatened existence?

In a political climate where fear is a weapon as much as a state of mind, where innocence isn’t automatically assumed, and where wars and foreign affairs can fuel prejudice at home, it is natural that many take great steps to defend embattled Muslim communities from the risk of dangerous incitement. In doing so, they recognise that Muslims deserve to have their rights – freedom of association, of safety, of speech – protected, if necessary by the state.

They also recognise that self-determination of cultural and national identity is not something we can impose on other people. Those rights and understandings must be equally extended to Jews without the expectation that we must first denounce Israel, fight it, answer for it, or be ashamed by it.

Even before the Kemp lecture, the student protesters Lynch became involved with declared that they were there to defend Hizb-ut-Tahrir, the extremist group which has been exposed as having spread antisemitic propaganda and incitement against Jews on the streets of Sydney. Hizb-ut-Tahrir, whatever their legal status, cannot be defended by any genuine anti-racist. If the radical left with which Lynch and his fellow protesters are affiliated are prepared to defend their civil rights, they must not excuse their anti-Jewish racism – a duty of which they have thus far failed.

When progressives downplay or diminish the threat of antisemitism in the diaspora because of Israel – or, worse, fuel it – they do not extend to us those equal rights they purport to stand for. Progressives do more than dishonouring their values in this case, they diminish the unique history of Jews in Australian (and western) society, failing to acknowledge and defend us as equal, regardless of our relationship with or opinions about Israel.

The left must act to repair its straining relationship with Jews and once again take up opposition to antisemitism as its cause. Antisemitism is, like all forms of racism, to be abhorred and condemned unequivocally, not reduced and marginalised by games of comparison and mitigation. It is not a partisan issue and it cannot be up to the right to own the unqualified outrage it deservedly generates. The left, and the values it holds, are far too proud and dear to our hearts for that.